This invention relates to an apparatus and system for administering medication. More specifically, this invention is directed to an apparatus and system for the delivery of a constant flow of site-specific medication to pain-sensitive membranes when intubated by tubing foreign to the body.
The utilization of tubes and catheters including but not limited to nasogastric tubes, Foley catheters, chest tubes, and various cavity drains such as abdominal drains is prevalent in modern medicine. These devices perform important functions such the administration of drugs, food, or oral agents such as activated charcoal into a patient's stomach, the drainage of urine from a patient's bladder, or the removal of air, fluid, and/or pus from a patient's intrathoracic space, respectively, either individually or as a requisite component of a wide variety of patient treatment protocols. Despite the widespread use, efficacy, and the essential functions these devices perform in the treatment of patients, nasogastric tubes, Foley catheters, chest tubes, cavity drains and the like can present a considerable disadvantage in terms of patient comfort as these tubes can be irritating and painful to surrounding pain-sensitive tissues of membranes such as the pleural, peritoneum, and mucous membranes of the oral pharynx and urethra.
Body cavities such as the oral pharynx, urethra, pleural and peritoneum include interstitial tissues and membranes which are highly sensitive to pain. When these interstitial membranes and tissues are intubated with tubing foreign to the body by the insertion of a nasogastric tube, Foley catheter, chest tube, cavity drain or the like into a patient's body cavity, these tubes and catheters not only necessarily engage and disturb the patient's pain-sensitive mucous membranes or body cavity tissues, but also are often positioned to lie in direct contact with such pain sensitive tissues and membranes for prolonged amounts of time, thus causing the patient a significant amount of perceived discomfort and pain. As a result, a need has arisen to confront and alleviate the pain and discomfort caused by the often prolonged contact between foreign tubes and/or catheters and pain-sensitive membranes.
Traditional efforts, such as systemic medications, have been employed in an attempt to control the pain associated with such tubing and catheters. However, doing so has proven difficult and is of limited effectiveness in terms of pain control, particularly because systemic medications are not administered directly to the tissues and membranes at the site of the perceived pain, and thus, systemic medications fail to target the source of the discomfort and are unable to effectively treat and directly alleviate the pain perceived by the pain sensitive membranes. Therefore, a need exists to provide an apparatus and system for administering medication which alleviates the pain and discomfort associated with the intubation of tubing foreign to the body that overcomes these problems.
Therefore, a principal object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and system for administering medication which provides a continuous flow of site-specific pain medication directly to the source of the pain caused by a foreign body.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an apparatus and system for administering medication which decreases the surface area of the tube in contact with the pain sensitive membranes.
It is still another object of this invention to provide an apparatus and system for administering medication which provides effective, targeted, and responsive pain control.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus and system for administering medication which provides a greater degree of contact and distribution between the pain sensitive membranes and the pain medication.
These and other objects, features or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the specification and claims.